Hair-drying device.



No. 696,4l2. Patented Mr. I, I902.

W. W. COWLEY.

HAIR DRYING DEVICE.

(Application filed Jan. 28, 1901.) (No Model.)

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UNITED STATES WVILLIAM W. COWLEY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

HAIR-IDRYINGEDEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 696,412, dated April 1, 1902. Application filed January 28,1901. Serial N0. 44,970. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, WILLIAM W. COWLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hair-Drying Devices; and

I do hereby declare the following to be a full,

clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for drying the human hair and other analogous purposes.

The object of the invention is to improve the construction and increase the efficiency of such apparatus; and it consists in the novel construction, arrangement, and combination of parts to effect such object, all as hereinafter described, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

It is Well known that all persons wearing the hair long are obliged to wash and cleanse the hair at frequent intervals to free the same from dust, dsc. After such washing the hair must necessarily be thoroughly dried, not only for sanitary reasons, but to avoid contracting colds, 50. The operation of drying the hair, especially where the latter is long, is a tedious and time-consuming operation, particularly where it is to be done without the assistance of other persons, and for this reason it is often only imperfectly accomplished.

It is one object of thisinvention, therefore, to not only shorten the time usually required for drying the hair, but also to more thoroughly accomplish the drying and also to leave the hair in a loose, light, and lively condition instead of being more or less matted, as is usually the case when the ordinary methods of drying the hair are employed.

Figure 1 represents the preferred form of the device in which this invention is embodied. Fig. 2 represents a slightly-modified form thereof. Fig. 3 represents the device in Figs. 1 and 2 viewed at right angles to the plane of View shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing a modification of the device shown in Fig. 2;

and Fig. 5 represents a further modification of the device shown in Fig. 1.

In a device of this character it is very important that it should present no free ends or poiuts,such as those of an ordinary comb, since in devices having such free ends or points these inevitably catch in and tangle the hair when drawn through the latter, especially where the hair is of considerable length. For this reason an important feature of the device herein shown and described consists in the absence of free ends, points, angles, or converging lines, in consequence of which its use is wholly free from the catching, tangling, and pulling of the hair which has been found to be inseparable from the use of any device hitherto employed to be passed through the hair while the latter is moist.

Theimplement consists of a number of parallel-sided return-bends a, of wire or smaller tubing, having both ends brought together and inserted in a convenient handle Z). The bends a form, in effect, flattened elongated tines, forming a fork-like structure, which when used is to be heated in the same manner as an ordinary curling-iron and then passed through the hair, lifting and separating the latter,while the moisture is quickly driven off by the heat of the tines 0,, thereby speedily drying the hair without the slightest danger of pulling or tangling the same, no matter how longit may be. The number of the tines a may be two, three, four, or any number preferred; but as the number of tines is increased the labor of drawing the device through the hair is also increased in greater proportion than the drying effect, especially in the beginning of the operation, and as the device isintend ed primarily and chiefly for ladies use the number of tines a is preferably limited to three or four in order to avoid tiring the wrist. The tines of the device may, if preferred, be formed with an undulating contour, as shown at a in Fig. 2, in which it will be observed, however, that the general line of the tines is parallel-sided and presents neither corners, points, or converging lines, forming contracted spaces into which the hairwould mat and pack as the instrument was drawn through the hair while moist, thereby severely pulling the hair and also very materially increasing the labor required to dry the hair and, besides, tiring the operator. The undula ICC tions shown in Fig. 2 may be all in one plane, so that the implement viewed at right angles to the plane of View shown in Fig. 2 would have the appearance shown in Fig. 3, or the undulations may be in a plane at right angles to that of the View shown in Fig. 2, so as to present the contour shown in Fig. 4 in one view and that of Fig. 2 in the other, or a portion of the undulations may be in one plane and the remainder in the other.

For use by hair-dressers and where the hair of one person is to be dried by the labor of another the form shown in Fig. 5 may be employed, in which the tines a are more numerous than could be conveniently used by persons in drying their own hair, owing to the greater strength required to use it, and in this case the handle may be placed at .right angles to the direction of the tines, as shown in Fig. 5, although it may in this case also, if preferred, be placed in line with the tines, as shown in Fig. 1, &;c.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A hair-drying device comprising parallel fork-shaped metal tines having substantially parallel sides and a supporting-handle in line therewith, as and for the purpose specified.

2. Ahair-dryin g device com prising parallel tines formed of wire bent in parallel-sided bends and having both ends inserted in a handle longitudinally alined therewith, substantially as described.

3. A hair-drying device comprising substantially parallel tines formed of wire bent in bends whose sides are undulating but substantially parallel in general direction and having a handle alined with the tines, substantially as described.

4. A hair-drying device comprising substantially parallel round-ended tines formed of a single wire bent in substantially parallel-sided bends and having both ends inserted in a handle longitudinally alined therewith, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I hereto affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM W. COWLEY.

Witnesses:

R. O. I-IAR'rsHoRNE, HATTIE A. STEVENSON. 

